Northwestern University recently hatched an ambitious project with international reach. With the help of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and other groups, Northwestern sent students to report on the lives of refugees in three very different settings: Amman, Jordan; the Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi; and the Osire Camp in Namibia.

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For a few days in December, students interviewed refugees and studied the challenges they faced. The students’ work, which includes video and print reporting, now lives on the website Refugeelives.org.

We speak with Peter Slevin, a longtime correspondent for the Washington Post and lecturer at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, who led the students in Amman. We're also joined by two Medill students who participated in Refugee Lives. Kevin Short went with Slevin to Amman. Corinne Chin reported from the Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi.

Kevin Short spoke with the Jumailis, an Iraqi refugee family in Amman. They tell Kevin about why they left Baghdad.